you'd be hard-pressed to find me with my ipod shuffle. on the tube, on the bus, as i walk, and of course as run, i have music playing in my ear. i like to think that it's the soundtrack to my life. :)

anyway, i've pretty burned through all my existing music and am seeking new tunes. since my last poll worked pretty well, i'm opening up for comments again. what are you listening to now? what's your favorite album in the last 6 months? of all time? recommend me something!

what kind of music do i listen to? well, i'm interested in anything really. i definitely lean towards alternative, indie rock and lately have gotten into more of the folksy, singer-songwriter stuff. but i'm looking for more variety these days so send me anything at all!

if you want to see some specifics, here's my last.fm profile: http://www.last.fm/user/lvchan.

in exchange, i'll let you in on what i've been listening to lately and would highly recommend:
* owl city - ocean eyes. i'm sure you've heard "fireflies" (which i love). but i also a huge fan of "the saltwater room" and "hello seattle".
* "new moon" soundtrack. i loved the "twilight" soundtrack so had high expectations for this one. i'd have to say that i'm quite pleased with what's on here. my favorite track on the album is the new killers song: "a white demon love song".

i've decided to spice up the training for my marathon by signing up for various half marathons at the right point in my training schedule. but not just any half marathons, my friends, half marathons across europe! as i was reviewing my training plan, i was initially quite disappointed to think that it was going to put a damper into my travel plans. then it occurred to me i can kill two birds with one stone by actually doing my training in different countries. it will make the runs much more exciting too. (i mean i think i can only do so many loops around the parks of london.)

surprisingly, it's not easy to find a calendar of half marathons around europe. i know my googling skills are pretty poor, but i really think there's no good list.

so here's my attempt at creating one. here are some possibilities:
* Barcelona Half Marathon - Feb 14
* Malta Half Marathon - Feb 28
* Bath Half Marathon - Mar 7
* Silverstone Half Marathon - Mar 14
* The Hague Half Marathon (Netherlands) - Mar 14
* Lisbon Half Marathon - Mar 21
* Prague Half Marathon - Mar 27
* Berlin Half Marathon - Mar 28

taking the bus along regent and oxford street tonight, i was greeted with a beautiful spectacle of christmas lights. they've been prepping this for a few weeks now but it truly is amazing to see it all come to life. as if i didn't already love this city and this time of year, putting the two together just makes me giddy with excitement. :D

apparently the turning on of the christmas lights on regent street is quite the to-do. how did i miss that? oh well, maybe next year? ;)

since i don't (yet) have any girl friends here in london, i'm turning to my friends across the atlantic to help me decide on which boots to buy. i'm looking for a good pair of comfy ugg-like boots (but i don't actually want to gets uggs because (1) everyone has them and (2) they're just really expensive). i'm also looking for a funky pair of wellies. seems like the british thing to do, don't you think?

so ladies, i'm opening this up for comments. here's what i'm thinking of getting:

a:

or

b:

or

c: both!

(by the way, i've tried both of these on and they are suuuuuper comfy.)

as for the wellies, i'm considering:

d:

or

e:

or

f:


ok, seriously, please feel free to let me know what you think. (gentlemen, you're welcome to comment as well.)

last night i told myself that i must go for a run in the morning. (i had 7 pumpkin cupcakes to work off, not to mention the bag of gummis i just scarfed down. ugh. where's my will power?)

as luck would have it, i woke up to find that it was pouring rain outside. lovely. with determination (and guilt from the bag of gummis), i threw on my windbreaker and headed out. in an effort to stay as dry as possible, i pulled the hoodie over my head and zipped up the jacket all the way to my chin to secure the hood from blowing off as i ran. i then put on my ipod earphones and was ready to rock.

this actually worked ok until i got about halfway through my run. at that point, i started to feel a bit choked with the zipped jacket around my neck. so then i pulled the zipper down but had to tighten the hood itself so that it wouldn't blow off my head. that, in turn, blinded me because it forced the top of hood to cover my eyes--i could only look about 2 feet in front of me. that was never going to work. what a disaster. i felt kinda like the freshmen or newbie--with my feeble, clueless attempt to stay dry. i eventually conceded and allowed myself to get drenched. the one thing i didn't realize was that the hood was actually preventing the rain from hitting my eyes. so i still ended up being somewhat blinded by the large water pellets attacking my face. i wonder if anyone has ever run with goggles...

anyway, though i was soaked by the end, i'm happy to say that i did successfully complete my 2 laps around regent's park, a total of 5.4 miles and my longest run yet of the "season".

must...stop...shopping...

me, london, and anthropologie...a very dangerous combination.

Dear Great Pumpkin,

I am looking forward to your arrival on Halloween Night. I hope you will bring me lots of presents. You must get discouraged because more people believe in Santa Claus than in you. Well, let's face it, Santa Claus has had more publicity. But being number two, perhaps you try harder. Everybody tells me you are a fake, but I believe in you.